Finished: Quick & Cheap DIY Tablecloth Ring Sling (& Thoughts on Finding Time to Blog AND Sew)

Becoming a sewing blogger is contradictory: blogging can inspire you to sew and can be creative in itself, but it can also be a time suck that takes you away from your sewing machine. Suddenly you have to find time not only to to make your project but to photograph (and photoedit) it, write it up (and edit it), answer comments — and, if you're really intense, provide detailed tips, tutorials and even patterns.

So given my limited free time lately as the mother of an 11-week-old boy and a 4-year-old girl I've been trying — and failing — to shorten my blog posts, limit the excessive amounts of detail and cut back on all the sketching and sewing planning and organizing of fabric and patterns I enjoy so much, but which rarely turns into actual sewing. And I'm giving myself permission to take really quick photographs in front of the only spot in my apartment which is vaguely clean and not worry that I can't crop out all the clutter.

I do think planning and sketching can help ensure a garment fits and flatters and actually gets worn ... but since I'm trying to break out of a sewing lull and seriously squeezed for time, it's probably better just to grab a pattern and fabric and just SEW.

(And yes, of course I realize it is possible to sew or knit without publicly documenting it... but at this point, it's almost a compulsion. Part of me just doesn't feel a project is truly complete until I've blogged it, Raveled it or Pattern Reviewed it... or at least Instagrammed it.)

So, anyway. I made a baby carrier out of a fuschia Mahogany brand tablecloth for the Small Human Being Sew-Along and it was ridiculously easy and satisfying. Start to finish the whole project took less than an hour for pressing, pinning and sewing, and that was INCLUDING watching the video tutorials and reading the instructions. It probably took less time than typing up this blog post.

The details:

Pattern: Used the free "A simple un-padded sling" ring sling tutorial with gathered shoulder option from Jan Andrea's Sleeping Baby Productions baby crafts page — she has a huge wealth of free baby carrier sewing patterns, with great videos and essential tips on selecting safe and supportive fabric, weight-bearing rings and strong thread. I didn't bother with a pocket as I didn't have enough extra fabric.

Fabric: Half of a 90" x 60" Mahogany fuschia and yellow tablecloth (100% cotton jacquard). After washing, my piece was about 87" x 29", and the final sling measureds 75" (12" is taken up by the rings area).

It can be hard to find high-quality, supportive and pretty fabrics at a budget price for babywearing, but Mahogany cotton jacquard tablecloths have been road-tested extensively by many babywearers, come in many cool patterns and colorways, and are quite popular for DIY wraps as well.

Notions: Weight-tested size large silver aluminum rings from SlingRings.com, high-quality polyester thread (I used Mettler Metrosene, but Guttermann is also popular for sling-making).

Cost: About $25 for the tablecloth half and sling rings together. Which is pretty sweet as commercial ring slings often cost between $85-$200.

I split the other half of the tablecloth with Clio, so we're going to be babywearing twinsies.

I cannot emphasize enough how much I ADORE this carrier. I've been wearing it all over the place for the last few days — even for outings of several hours. I love the bright pink color, I love how soft and supportive it is, and how "grippy" the fabric is (it really grips the rings and stays put once well-tightened). Baby D seems to love it too, as he falls asleep very quickly in it! And it is much more comfortable than it might look, as most of the weight is spread across the back, not the shoulder.

I'll probably get more practical use out of this sling than anything I've sewn.

This shot probably best shows the actual color:

Again, I'm trying to keep this post short, but the Sleeping Baby Productions instructions are great and easy to follow. Do read them carefully, though, especially in regard to fabric selection — you are going to be carrying a precious baby in that thing, so you want to make sure you select good fabric and sew it carefully and securely with strong thread (she recommends three parallel lines of stitching, spaced about 1/4" apart).

A word or two about safety:

Making your own carrier can be a quick sewing high, but please make sure you know how to use it SAFELY — that baby is high, tight, secure to your chest (tummy to tummy), breathing freely, and seated in a nice deep pocket. I took a little free babywearing class with professional educations when I had my daughter, and I've also been to some great babywearing meetups with volunteer educators who can (I've just joined my local NYC chapter of Babywearing International, and besides meetups and baby carrier education and troubleshooting they have an awesome baby carrier lending library!)

YouTube is also a great babywearing resource. Here are my two favorite ring sling troubleshooting videos by WrappingRachel: "How to Use a Ring Sling With a Newborn" and "Ring Sling Troubleshooting: Keeping the Rings at Corsage Level".

But don't be too intimidated — wearing your baby should be done carefully in a safe carrier, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy, fun and life-changing. Ring slings are great for sleepy little snuggly newborns who need to nurse a lot (you can nurse in the sling and use the tail as a cover), or tired toddlers who can only walk so far before they want up on your hip. And they don't need to cost a fortune, either — if you sew, you can make a sling.

I have one more pair of sling rings and I think I want to do a brightly-colored double-layer silk dupioni or shantung sling with a pocket (I own one and it is AMAZING, but the color is rather subdued). I think I need about 2.5" yards of 56"+ wide fabric... I've been eyeing this lime silk dupioni from Fabric.com...

... and I have a 20% off coupon, but it is only 54" wide, so that might be a bit narrow once folded and sewn into a double layer... I think I'll keep my eye out for bright-colored nubbly silk on sale.

Or maybe I'll just get another tablecloth!

**Disclosure: Actions you take from hyperlinks within this blog post may yield commissions for polkadotoverload.com (quite likely to be spent on yarn or fabric).

A Sewing Room of My Own! (Sort of)

Or dimly lit corner of the nursery of my own, anyway. Viking machine + Horn cabinet + IKEA chair found in basement trash room.

Are you one of those lucky sewists with a whole room dedicated to your crafty pursuits? With a sewing cabinet and a serger station and a cutting table and an inspiration wall and a fabric storage closet and a pattern storage cabinet and a dress form corner and a gravity-fed steam iron and ...

OK, I hate you. Or envy you, anyway. But not as much as I used to, because I FINALLY have a permanent spot for the sewing machine. No more hiding my beloved Viking Platinum 730 in a corner cabinet under a pile of breast-pump paraphernalia! No more lifting stacks of this and piles of that and clearing off the dining table before I can sew a single seam. OK, so my serger is still on a closet shelf and I still cut fabric on a cardboard mat on the bed, but... baby steps!

This was part of some serious apartment rearranging and decluttering. We put the crib in our bedroom next to the bed for easy baby access, replacing the cosleeper she outgrew way too fast. We even threw out our coffee table. It was just collecting magazines anyway, and now there's a nice big spot on the living room rug to put down quilts for playtime:

Patchwork baby quilt by my amazing mom, knitted purple diaper soaker by yours truly, and drool by Miss Baby Z.

So far my mother's been doing the lion share of the sewing (baby diapers, baby hats, a cloth book) but I actually made Z a few things for the holidays and maybe I'll even make myself some clothes soon. I also have finally learned to backwrap, so maybe Z can take a snooze back there while I sew and not be able to reach for any pins or sharp stuff. Here we are at a babywearing holiday party:

So yeah, more posts and actual finished sewn objects for you soon!

How about you? Do you have a drool-worthy permanent sewing setup... or do you have to tug your machine out of the bottom of a closet out from under a pile of old shoes and heave it onto a coffee table every time you get stitchy?

P.S. Apologies for dim lighting, but there's so few hours of daylight for blog photos in the dead of winter!

P.P.S. OK, I replaced the dimly lit photo with a better shot and added a few more details.

A Simple Piece of Cloth

Me and Baby Z in our new Girasol Tropical Sea Wrap, originally uploaded by M1khaela.

Not much sewing going on here lately, what with working full time and being a new(ish) mom ... but I've been playing with fabric in another way in the meantime!

Last month Z and I attended our first babywearing meetup, and after learning some simple carries (well, one simple carry) I bought a used Girasol baby wrap in "Tropical Sea" colors. Here's my first attempt on wrapping Z in a front wrap cross carry. It was super comfortable (Z is over 15 pounds, so the more support the better) for both of us--I walked around and did some light housework, and Z took a relaxing nap.

More on this later, with more photos and useful links. I just needed to break the blog silence!

Make Your Own Baby Sling!

Baby Z snoozing contentedly in a ring sling made by her Grandmommy Beryl

I mentioned a while back that in addition to sewing up dozens of cloth diapers, my mother also made us a whole host of baby carriers for wearing little Z. And Masheka and I took an excellent free Babywearing 101 workshop at Metro Minis in Manhattan to learn about five major types of baby carriers (pouches, slings, mei tais, soft structured carriers and wraps) and how to use them safely. The safest position for small infants is an inward-facing front carry, tummy-to-tummy with baby up high enough on the sternum that you can kiss the top of her head. Baby's head is to the side, with plenty of clearance so she isn't chin-to-chest.

The above is one of the ring slings my mother made, my current favorite for around-the-house babywearing. She just used a piece of reversible upholstery fabric she got at Jo-Ann's with some baby-wearing-quality ring slings purchased from SlingRings.com. Slingrings.com also has links to a bunch of sling-making sewing patterns. I'm not sure which one she used, but it has a pleated shoulder and a handy pocket on the tail and she tells me it was a super-easy and quick project (not to mention much less expensive than commercial ring slings).

Except when we're sleeping, either Masheka and I hold and cuddle Baby Z nearly every minute she's awake (and much of the time she's asleep). She's not fussy or colicky, but it's pretty clear she far prefers lying on our chests to lying in her cosleeper or crib. So without a way to carry her hands-free, I'd be hard-pressed to even make myself a sandwich or make a phone call, and I'd be even farther behind on my email than I already am (which reminds me--apologies if you've emailed me and haven't heard back!).

Oh, and here's Masheka carrying Baby Z in the neutral gray mei-tai-style baby carrier my mom made in deference to his tastes. This photo was taken barely a week after she was born, so I still look a bit preggo:

Anyway, if you want more information, I recommend the forums and articles at TheBabyWearer.com. And I swear that someday there will be a sewing-related post here that isn't about baby stuff... really!